


puzzle

by deandratb



Category: One Day at a Time (TV 2017)
Genre: Birthday Fluff, Birthday Presents, Established Relationship, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-05
Updated: 2019-07-05
Packaged: 2020-06-09 18:49:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19481863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deandratb/pseuds/deandratb
Summary: What do you get your boyfriend for his birthday when he can afford to buy himself anything?





	puzzle

She spends two full weeks trying to figure out what to get Schneider for his birthday. They’ve only just started whatever-this-is, what feels too important to call ‘dating’ but too complicated to call anything else...so it matters more this year, his birthday.

But the problem is, Schneider is rich. **Really** rich, trust-fund top-tax-bracket can-get-away-with-crimes rich. And she can’t figure out what to give a man who can literally buy himself anything she could afford. 

It’s Schneider, so she also knows that she could buy him anything and he’d love it because he loves her. She’s definitely overthinking this. 

But it matters to her. He matters to her, and she needs him to know that. 

He’s so important to her and her family now, but Schneider still wavers between acting like he belongs and waiting for them to reject him. 

It’s that more than anything that gives her the idea for his gift, one of those random moments between them back when they were just friends. Or back when they were insisting they were just friends, anyway; it’s been a long time since he felt like just her friend.

She makes the arrangements, and grins to herself the whole time she’s wrapping the end result, because she knows. She knows it’s perfect. She knows he’ll love it. 

And because he’s Schneider, she gets immediate confirmation that her instincts were correct. 

He tears up as soon as he’s done carefully folding back the cheerful dollar store wrapping paper, splaying his hands across the sides of the box and holding on. 

“You...you put me in the picture.”

Schneider’s swallowing the urge to cry, mostly successfully, as his girlfriend beams at him from across the table. 

“I wanted to give it to you before the party, when it was just us. I love you, Schneider.”

“I--” His fingers flex against the box as he looks down at it, then at her, then back down. “I love it, Pen. It’s perfect. Why did you...”

“A couple of years ago, you asked me to Photoshop you into the puzzle. Remember?”

He nods, his throat bobbing against the sentiment.

“Well, I didn’t have to,” she points out, gesturing to the jigsaw in his hands. 

The photo on the front, that she submitted to a website and turned into his present, is from her graduation day. It’s a few weeks before he and Avery would break up for the second time, a few weeks after she realized at Victor’s wedding that if he asked her out, she might say yes. 

Schneider is on her left side, with Alex and Elena in front of him, and the rest of her family on her right. He’s grinning as proudly as her _Mami_ is, and his hand is resting lightly, just a little bit possessively, on Penelope’s shoulder. 

He didn’t notice it then, and she did but chose not to mention it. She was sorry when he and Avery broke up, for his sake, but couldn’t claim she was surprised. His family came first, and that included Penelope, and Avery could see what that meant long before he did.

“Happy birthday, Schneider,” Penelope says, leaning in to seal it with a kiss. They can hear Alex and Lydia coming down the hall, hopefully carrying the cake she ordered, and he links his fingers through hers as she pulls back. 

“Thank you,” he replies, and his eyes hold everything else he’s saying underneath those words. _I love you too, Penelope Alvarez. I’m so glad we’re here right now. My real gift is all of you._

After cake and ice cream and the rest of his presents are opened, the whole family helps him put the puzzle together. 

Penelope had ignored him that day, years ago, too wrapped up in her own problems and too busy trying to ignore feelings she wasn’t quite ready for. 

But Schneider was right. She knows that now.

The missing piece was him all along.

**Author's Note:**

> #98 in my 100 Stories Challenge for ODAAT. Prompt list [here](https://actuallylorelaigilmore.tumblr.com/post/186061589290/because-i-needed-a-challenge-to-get-me-back-into).


End file.
